


Resurrection

by Endangered_Slug



Series: Rumbelle Showdown 2014 [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle Showdown 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 02:11:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2049408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endangered_Slug/pseuds/Endangered_Slug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Round 1 entry for the Rumbelle Showdown 2014.</p><p>Surprise?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Resurrection

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt at these prompts had Mr. Gold going on a juice fast. That didn't really work out. This is the full text version of the story; I had to cut out a bit to make it fit the word limit, which is a lot harder than it looks believe me.
> 
> Note: Mandalorian is a made up language in the Star Wars universe. I borrowed it for storytelling purposes. 
> 
> My prompts were: Gold cooks, He smells her, Cleanse the body

 

The coil of gold slipped from Belle's aching fingers and into the beaker of bubbling, noxious ingredients. It was the final component, the price of the magic needed for the spell and she'd triple checked the list of requirements before stoppering the bottle. The ingredients glowed an eerie green and yellow before turning crystal clear. Harmless looking. She held the bottle up to the light trying to find the hidden magic but couldn't see it. She knew it was there nevertheless. She put it there. It was all very simple really. Rumpelstiltskin made such a fuss about magic that her experiment seemed very anticlimactic.

 

Rumpelstiltskin liked to tell people that dead was dead and she knew it to be true. Usually. However, she also knew how to read ancient Mandolorian and she how to research. More importantly, she knew where to start looking for texts written in ancient Mandolorian dealing with the restoration of those trapped in limbo.

 

Belle was positive she was right about it but Rumple was equally positive that Bae was dead. So she conducted her research in secret biding her time until she found the relevant book that pointed her in the direction of where to start looking. And at last, three months, two weeks and five days later, she was finished.

 

She pocketed the vial. Now that the hard part was done all she had to do was psych herself up for the rest.

 

* * *

 

Rumpelstiltskin, for all the heartache he experienced in the past few months, could honestly say he was a lucky man. Lucky he survived as long as he had, lucky to have his sanity mostly intact, lucky he had the true love of a beautiful and brave woman. Despite everything he was guilty of, still she stayed with him. He didn't understand why or even how. He was unnatural, a human shell fit tightly against the Dark One's innards he possessed – or maybe they possessed him. He couldn't tell any more. Unnatural in age, unnatural in nature, he should have been dead several times over. Fact of the matter he wasn't supposed to have lived long enough to see his son be born, which is where all of his troubles started, he supposed. It was his own fault.

 

And yet Belle _stayed_. She saw through him and kept him honest as much as it was possible for him to be. Several hundred years of conspiracies and word twisting was a difficult habit to break after all, but he tried for her. For Bae. But it was, to say the least, difficult. He could smell a desperate soul on a breeze and would have an idea of how to twist the events to his advantage. Which was exactly why he suspected something was up.

 

She had become clingy, which was most unusual once he came down from his Belle-induced euphoria. He didn't want to complain - not at all - but there was something in her eyes that seemed strained and entirely unBelle-like that he because suspicious. She was almost manic in her insistence for alone time whereas before she made a point to go out with her silly friends and have _girl time_ and _space_. He thought maybe she was sick so he did the natural thing, which was to corner Dr. Whale and threaten him with eternal snailhood but the doctor had sworn on his life that Belle hadn't been in to see him since she signed out as Lacey. Rumpelstiltskin gave him his tongue back the next day; punishment for reminding him of that dark time and a warning of what would happen in the future if Whale crossed him.

 

He started to follow her. Belle was clever but he was the Dark One with centuries of experience and patience to fall back on. He didn't account for her finding the cave underneath the library though and he kicked himself when he realized she'd found it.

 

* * *

 

Belle knelt on the floor of the dungeon going over the incantation one last time before she set to work with the chalk, methodically opening up a mawing pit in front of her. She'd found the cave weeks ago and if she wasn't trying to pull something in secret she'd have asked Rumple about it because she just knew he had something to do with it and the dragon skeleton lying on the ground. She was done before she knew it and brought out the potion to have it ready when it was required.

 

“And just what do you think you're doing, Belle?”

 

She jumped at the sound of Rumple's voice directly behind her. “I forgot you could do that,” she said, turning around quickly.

 

He looked at her work and at the open book on the floor, his eyes darkening with anger. “And what made you think that this was in any way a good thing to do.”

 

She threw the chalk at his feet where it smashed into pieces. “Everything you've done was for Bae. Your curse, this town, even that cane you're holding, it's all for _Bae_. You _need_ him. I think more than you need me. I've come to terms with that and I think it's time that you face the truth as well.” She pressed her hands to her cheeks trying to keep from crying. “I love you so much, Rumple. I just can't stand to see you suffer any more.”

 

He gaped at her. “And you think throwing your life away would make it better? Are you mad?”

 

She glared at him. “Don't even start with that.”

 

“Belle! I'm not—“ He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “If you jump into that pit then I'm jumping in after you. I'm serious. I _will_ _not_ lose you.” He held out a shaking hand. “Please give me the bottle.”

 

“No, I don't think so.”

 

“Belle, I swear to you, if you do this, I will bring out another curse that will make the one that brought us here look like child's play. Don't think I won't. I will follow you no matter where you go; do you understand me?”

 

She blinked at him and lowered her arm. “And they say _I'm_ mad, that's crazy.”

 

“I'm not known for my sanity.”

 

“You would do that? Curse the town and follow me to wherever this portal goes?”

 

“In a heartbeat.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because I love you and I don't want to be anywhere you aren't.”

 

“But Bae—“

 

“Bae is _gone_! I know that. I accept it for all that I hate it. You can't bring him back. And... and if you stay here in this world or in our old world or any other world you want to go to and you want to leave me then I accept that, too. But not like this. This is not the way. You have to believe me, sweetheart.”

 

Sniffling, she looked at him through her tears. “I don't want to leave you.” She handed him the bottle which he took quickly before she changed her mind.

 

“Don't ever do this again,” he pleaded.

 

“I promise.”

 

He held up the vial to the light. “Where did you find how to make this?”

 

She gave him a watery smile. “In a book, silly.”

 

 

 


End file.
